Entertainment Industry Back To Sending Out False Takedowns

from the this-sounds-familiar dept

It's happened plenty of times before, but for some reason, no one seems to focus on how all the examples of fake DMCA takedown notices demonstrate just how screwed up the system is. Any copyright holder can send a takedown notice just because they believe that someone is offering a file that they own the copyright to... without any proof whatsoever that the file is actually an infringing file. This happened last year with a Professor Usher, who had a file named usher.mp3 on his server -- which had absolutely nothing to do with with the more popular Usher. The latest news, however, has two more completely bogus takedown notices. One is from the MPAA claiming some open source software code is a movie, and another from the Entertainment Software Association claiming a 114kb video game from 1998 is actually a pirated copy of Doom 3. While everyone seems to laugh these "little mistakes" off, it's showing that everyone accused of unauthorized file sharing is getting accused with very little actual proof.

Bogus take down notices all over

I have received a dozen bogus takedown notices from the ESA in the last month alone. My ISP informs me that one more bogus takedown notice and they will cut my internet connection off for good. I'm half hoping they do so I can sue the ESA for every penny I can get.